Snowy Days, Quiet Nights
by Oceans in Hand
Summary: Members of the Bleach gang celebrate the season. So far: IchiRuki, RenRuki, IchiRenRuki, TatsuOri.
1. Snow Bunny

**Snowy Days, Quiet Nights  
Chapter One: Snow Bunny **

Rukia wonders if she should be insulted when Ichigo calls her a snow bunny. She wonders because, you see, she _likes_ bunnies, but on the other, Orihime's eyes are bright with barely contained laughter. And Ichigo is giving her that look that she can't resist. The slight crook about his mouth says, _I dare you_. The small inward, downward tilt his eyebrows says, _I know you can't resist for long._

He really knows her to well. Rukia can't resist a dare. There is precedent that suggests she doesn't need to even know what she's being challenged over, too.

She wonders for a moment while Orihime shakes with noiseless giggles and Tatsuki grins, blindingly, and Renji watches from atop the wall where he lounges like a big cat.

Rukia grins wickedly up at Ichigo, and crushes a handful of snow into his nose.

Then she knocks him on his ass while he's still brushing tiny ice crystals out of his eyes, and kicks a freezing white wave at him.

His eyes are red from the sudden bother, and snow water runs from them in rivulets that look like tears from a distance.

"Who's a snow bunny?" She asks, smiling sweetly. Her voice is light, weightless with good humor.

Ichigo licks his lip, and his breath comes out in a little cloud in that brief moment it's open. His leg flashes—he's gotten so fast since they first met—and kicks Rukia's out from underneath her. She lands with a surprised grunt on his shins.

Shoveling a little pile into one hand, he looks contemplatively at it, then at Rukia's rainbow-stripped, toboggan covered head.

She can see his thoughts as he thinks them.

"Do. _Not._" She grits.

But, of course, he does. She lunges for his wrist as the other hand, the one _not_ filled with snow, goes for her hat and lifts the thick knit up.

Rukia isn't able to manage a good grip on him; her fingers are numb from the cold even inside Orihime's borrowed mittens, and the material of his jacket is unhelpfully slick. He thrusts the handful beneath her hat, and yanks it down to her nose.

As she struggles with the material, clumsy fingers a distinct nuisance, she can't help the grin that comes out as Ichigo's hands pull her close. His breath is hot on her jaw as he says in her ear, "Snow bunny Kuchiki, you seem to be having problems."

She can hear the smirk in his voice, and she's preparing to snarl a clever retort when his mouth opens against hers, and the contrasting warmth of his tongue on the back of her teeth blows away her plans like smoke. Rukia decides that being a snow bunny isn't a bad thing.

She makes a mental note to get revenge for the icy water running through her hair, however.


	2. Pizza and a Movie

**Snowy Days, Quiet Nights  
Chapter Two:** **Pizza and a Movie**

Back at Orihime's apartment, they settle around her dark living room with her own cold weather creation of vanilla mint cocoa and snacks—chips, marshmallows, delivery pizza. The foodstuff has migrated and is everywhere now. On the coffee table, the couch, the floor between Tatsuki and Orihime. The only light—discounting the half open blinds—comes from the television, which playing crappy, made-for-TV holiday movies.

Inoue has doused her slice of pepperoni and sausage with cocktail sauce and syrup. Tatsuki has her eyes locked on the television, and is careful when she looks at her friend to ignore that stomach-churning sight. The smell is bad enough.

Rukia is stretched out over the worn leather sofa, her head on Renji's leg and her bare feet against Ichigo's side. A second pizza box is on her stomach, and periodically one of the three will reach inside for a slice of Canadian bacon and pineapple.

A commercial pitching deodorant comes on, and the dark room is washed in bright, bubblegum pink. Rukia wiggles and stretches her fingers, trying to pinch the plastic of the marshmallow bag between her two longest fingers. With a tiny cry of triumph, she snatches it to her chest and drops one fluffy puff into her mouth.

Renji rolls his head and looks down to her with an expression that is blank except for a certain warmth about his features. Contentment, she thinks it is. Rukia smiles up back up at him, her cheeks fat with her snack. That makes her insides flutter and heat, makes her happy. His contentment. She's only seen that a handful of times.

Rukia swallows her mouthful with an audible gulp, and tentatively reaches up, her fingers walking through the air. She twirls one long, bloody strand around her index finger, and tugs his head down to hers.

The kiss is long and slow. Gentle, like few would believe Renji can be. Rukia makes a purring noise as he massages her bottom lip between his teeth, and looks through the fall of his hair to the other end of the couch—where Ichigo, brown eyes bright in the glare of the television, watches. His teeth flash in a small smile, and he—

—winks. And looks back to the television, where the movie has begun to play again. The smile doesn't go away.

Rukia laughs quietly into Renji's mouth, and untangles her hand from his hair, so he doesn't get a crink in his neck.


	3. Napkin to the Rescue!

**Snowy Days, Quiet Nights**  
**Chapter Three: Napkin to the Rescue!**

The shinigami have long ago vacated the apartment, but Tatsuki and Orihime remain stationed before the television. The movie playing is mind-numbingly dull, with a plot that Tatsuki itches to critique to death, but she resists. Orihime is warm and relaxed at her side, humming and tapping her feet contentedly, and obviously enjoying the film.

There's a splotch of syrup at the corner of her mouth, and Tatsuki pictures the adorable expression her girlfriend slash best friend would make if she leaned in to lick it away—but, remembering that noxious pizza, she can't quite bring herself to.

There's an unsteady tower of napkins by her hand. With a sudden spark of mischief, she snatches one up and smacks it over the redhead's lips.

Orihime breaks her gaze from the TV and blinks at her curiously. Her eyes crinkle with laugh lines when she realizes—and Tatsuki leans in to fit her mouth over the shape of Orihime's through the napkin. Her giggle tickles in Tatsuki's teeth, and her fingers feel wonderful clenched in the front of her too-big sweater. Before the napkin is compromised, the kiss devolves into a tickle fight of epic proportions.

Though it's not as if that was unprecedented, exactly.


	4. Warmth and Wonders

**Snowy Days, Quiet Nights****  
Chapter Four: Warmth and Wonders**

Renji's favorite thing about Ichigo's apartment is probably his bed.

The twin bed he'd slept in for as long as they'd known him hadn't made the cut, and anything big enough for the three of them wasn't exactly budget-friendly…Or likely to fit in the little studio Ichigo had, somehow, been able to put a payment down on.

So what they were currently working with was a futon—two side-by-side, covered with a single sheet that Ishida had been kind enough to adjust for the purpose. It wasn't so often that they were able to enjoy it as it was meant to be—he and Rukia had to fight for every minute they spent in the living world, and Ichigo was barely managing to balance a job, med school, and Hollow-hunting. The strain was apparent in the shining edges to their voices and the simmering tempers beneath the surface, but, lately…things had been good. Better. Since the snow had begun to fall and the spirit of the season had spread like disease, the 'thing' they have had gotten easier.

Take now, for instance: the quiet evening at Orihime's, the day wandering the snow-covered town. The lazy night curled up beneath the covers of Ichigo's monster futon, Rukia's cold feet on his shins and Ichigo's breath warming his sternum. The little apartment is freezing, since textbooks had come out over heat this month, but the cloud of body heat they've accumulated and trapped beneath four blankets is pretty cozy. Renji's nose is probably turning blue, but his toes are warm.

Rukia makes a contented sound against him, and curls her fingers into his hip. Her shifting prods Ichigo into motion, who shuffles closer and ends up bent around Rukia's tiny frame, his nose this close to Renji's throat.

He has wondered in the past, if this…relationship…was worth the weight it put on all of them. Renji thinks about it every night he turns Rukia away from his room because they both know it would frustrate Ichigo. He thinks about it every time he's left behind in Soul Society doing paperwork, or when they drop in, only to find Ichigo half-asleep and miserable but bowed faithfully over his books.

Relationships aren't often easy, but polygamous relationships must be _several_ times harder to maintain, because Renji doesn't remember losing so much sleep over his few, previous flings.

So, yeah. He wonders. He wonders pretty often, and he's sure Rukia and Ichigo do too.

But times like these make him remember why they decided to give it a try, and though he'll wonder some more on Monday, tomorrow there won't have any doubts. That's enough, for now.


End file.
